NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 27, 1998

Arthur Lee

Mark Madsen

Mike Montgomery

Tim Young

COACH MONTGOMERY: It has been -- every one of those guys turned out to be a star on that team. I think you guys won some kind of a championship. As a matter of fact, you were at my house and had a little party.

TIM YOUNG: This is a good experience for me because at that time I wasn't really familiar with the big time. I didn't play against a lot of high-profile players. Playing against Shareef Abdur-Rahim and those guys really helped me a lot.

TIM YOUNG: Robert Trailer on that team and Shareef. Those were the two stand out.

MARK MADSEN: There are so many things about Kentucky that we are worried about. They run the floor very, very well. They can shoot a 3 pointer, and they have got some really athletic players in the starting rotation and coming off the bench that can slash and penetrate and go to the basket. Our big focus, a big part of our preparation has gone into getting back on transition and not allowing them to get cheap buckets on the break.

MARK MADSEN: In a way it is kind of fun because there are a lot of other teams that are really physical, too. You know, Tim, Arthur -- Arthur has taken so many shots this year. You want to talk to Arthur about it. He has had black eyes, stitches. Other teams have gone after Arthur. I do think we are a physical team, and that is part of our starting lineup and part of all of our guys off the bench as well.

ARTHUR LEE: I mean, I don't know. It's tough. I guess guys see all the money out there and see that it can be available to them and they figure they have an opportunity to get their hands on some of it. But I guess you just have to say no, stay away from it. But I mean, I guess guys have different situations that they feel that they can take advantage of, maybe, because they feel maybe they don't have anything to lose and maybe they can get away with it. But there is definitely something that you want to stay away from because it is definitely not in the player's best interest. So like I say, you definitely want to stay away from it.

MARK MADSEN:. After beating Rhode Island, people calling up, I think all of us experienced where people were calling us out of the blue from different media sources. That's something we didn't experience before. But, you know, this is fun. This is the Final Four. This is an once in a lifetime opportunity and experience. And we are going to make the most of it. I don't think any of our guys are uptight. I don't think any of our guys are nervous. We are here to have fun. We were talking about that on the way to this press conference. We are going to have fun and to compete, and we have guys that compete at a very high level.

MARK MADSEN: Yeah. I think Kentucky is a very quick team. I think we are one of the quickest teams in the country as well. At the quickness positions, our guys are as quick as anyone. We have Arthur Lee, Kris Weems, Mike MacDonald, Peter Sauer. These guys are very quick. And, you know, they are at the quickness positions, and you know, I think we played some bad games against quicker teams, and for that reason we have been hit with this notion that we are a slow team.

ARTHUR LEE: No question that Wayne Turner is a very good player, likes to penetrate. He pushes the tempo and likes to control the tempo as much as he can. But I'm going to look at it as any game I played against a quality point guard. I will guard and be aggressive, do the things I've been doing all year, push the ball when I can and try to control the tempo and keep it in our favor. He is quality talent, but it will be a battle at the point guard position. We will both try to control the tempo as much as we can.

ARTHUR LEE: I think so. I think that was a big time for me personally as well as the team. It was something that we dreamed about doing for a while, a long while. It was one of our goals this season to make it to the Final Four. I was just really happy that I was able to lead the team to the destination, and guys stepped up tremendously all year long. These guys up here, everybody doing a wonderful job, as well as the guys back in the locker room for us. So I think that was a very crucial defining moment for me, and I was very happy.

MARK MADSEN: I think it is a big advantage for us. I do also want to clarify that we are loose but we also have very high expectations for ourselves. We set some very lofty goals at the beginning of the season. You know, some people are writing us off. I mean, the Stanford team is filled with guys that are tough and refuse to say "gone." I mean, we are here and we set the goals to win a National Championship. We set that goal in autumn. That goal is in locker room on a poster that everyone signed.